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DNA is not a language

Posted on: January 7, 2008 - 10:20pm

deludedgod

Posts: 3221

Joined: 2007-01-28

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DNA is not a language

I think I should clarify this considering how pervasive the claim is. The claim “DNA is a language” is probably the result of pop-science, which tries to reduce concepts to simple single words or phrases. That’s how the myth “you only use ten percent of your brain” started (Complete nonsense. The confusion arises because only 10% of brain cells are neuronal, the rest are glial cells like oligodendrocytes and astrocytes). It is also how the Second Law of thermodynamics became reduced to “everything progresses towards disorder” with the result that many creationists are confused about thermodynamics, and labour under the delusion that entropy can never decrease in a system. Nonsense, again. But it does reveal troubling ignorance about science, a few names, some general concepts, that’s it. The claim “DNA is a language” is a meaningless allusion, even if construed as metaphorical. DNA is no more a language than a telephone book is a computer. DNA is a cipher, that is to say that it is a direct substitution representation of the sequential structure of another unbranched polymer, polypeptide (some DNA, however, codes for RNA genes), constructed of a different monomer class, amino acids. The order of the amino acids will determine the structure and function of the final product for which the DNA codes, the protein. In this regard, DNA does not function, even analogously, as a language, it is a substitution cipher. A substitution cipher is one in which one set of functional expressions is replaced with another. For example:

A=1

B=2

C=3

D=4

E=5

F=6

Etc

If I transcribed this to write: 85(12)(12)(15)=HELLO, which was then decoded by another conscious being with the same understanding, then it would become a language. This does not analogously occur in DNA. The DNA is a substitution of DNA bases grouped in to codon triplets, which are transcribed and translated to make functional polypeptides. This is not a language. A substitution cipher per se does not qualify as a language.

In this case, each amino acid is read as a triplet group of nucleotides called a codon, with other codons dictating the stop and start of translation. As shown in this table, DNA is a substitution cipher like so:

GCA

GCC

GCG

GCU

AGA

AGG

CGA

CGG

CGU

GAC

GAU

AAC

AAU

UGC

UGU

GAA

GAG

CAA

CAG

GGA

GGC

GGG

GGU

CAC

CAU

AUA

AUC

AUU

UUA

UUG

CUA

CUC

CUG

CUU

AAA

AAG

AUG

UUC

UUU

CCA

CCC

CCG

CCU

AGC

AGU

UCA

UCC

UCG

UCU

ACA

ACC

ACG

ACU

UGG

UAC

UAU

GUA

GUC

GUG

GUU

UAA

UAG

UGA

Ala

Arg

Asp

Asn

Cys

Glu

Gln

Gly

His

Ile

Leu

Lys

Met

Phe

Pro

Ser

Thr

Trp

Tyr

Val

Stop

A

R

D

N

C

E

Q

G

H

I

L

K

M

F

P

S

T

W

Y

V

However, DNA is not a language, in any sense, because it does not represent concepts or meanings, a language entails that abstracts represent concretes, such as a number 5 written on a piece of paper, which has “meaning” to an entity which can understand what “5” means. Nothing analogous is found in DNA, since it is only a substitution cipher, which represents the order of amino acids in a protein, or RNA nucleotides in an RNA molecule. There is no abstract representation or assigned meaning going on with a direct physical substitution cipher, like DNA. When a stop codon orders a ribosome to stop transcribing, the ribosome does not “understand” that it has to stop transcribing, because it is just a ribosome. Nor does the nascent polypeptide “understand” that it is being hydrolyzed. Nor do tRNA “understand” that they must bind to their respective codons on mRNA. There is no transmission of conscious understanding, no abstract communication that entails one entity interprets symbols because it has the same understanding as the entity which communicated them. In this regard, DNA is not a language by definition.All that is happening is that the stop codon does not contain the binding site for any tRNA, but it does contain the binding site for the release factors which terminates translation because it causes the nascent polypeptide to hydrolyze an ester bond as they catalyze this hydrolysis reaction and release from the subunits of the ribosome.

"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.

"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.

"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.

However, DNA is not a language, in any sense, because it does not represent concepts or meanings, a language entails that abstracts represent concretes, such as a number 5 written on a piece of paper, which has “meaning” to an entity which can understand what “5” means.
...
In this regard, DNA is not a language by definition.

I am wondering where your definition of language comes from. I ask because, when I studied formal languages, in Computer Science, the representation of abstracts with concretes was not part of the definition of language. It is entirely possible that we used a slightly special definition of language, but this is a branch of Computer Science that is sort of an offshoot of linguistics.